Our Climate Declaration

We, people of Aotearoa, commit to urgently transforming society to achieve climate stability for future generations. We will create a climate-safe Aotearoa, based on economic fairness, democracy, respect for human rights and the intent of Te Tiriti o Waitangi,where we live in harmony with Nature and with each other.

We call on all New Zealanders to:

1. Stop the bad stuff

Reduce the extraction and burning of fossil fuels to 50% by 2025 and to zero by 2030:

(i) Prevent all new and expanded coal mines and coal-burning plants;

(ii) End deep sea oil exploration and fracking for oil and gas.

Stop all non-essential air travel; halve aviation emissions by 2025.

Halt the expansion of industrialized, intensive farming.

End the unsustainable drive for endless economic growth and consumerism, which drives inequality and resource depletion.

Restore 1.3 million hectares of marginal land to native forest to increase carbon sinks;

Increase protection for New Zealand’s biodiversity and wild places;

Reduce consumption of transport, energy and materials by sharing resources, growing local food, eating less meat and dairy and creating resilient local economies;

Insulate all homes and upgrade energy efficiency;

Put in place just transition processes for those whose livelihoods will be affected;

Work towards a waste-free, circular economy that creates wellbeing for all citizens and respects Nature’s limits.

3. Pressure government to:

Comply with and facilitate the above transformation;

Withdraw investment from the fossil fuel industry;

Establish a Climate Commission to set a binding carbon budget and develop a plan to meet it;

Establish a legally binding and steadily rising price on all greenhouse gas emissions, to incentivise action to meet our targets;

Abide by and strengthen our obligations under the Paris agreement, according to climate science;

Prepare for a fair resettlement of climate refugees with guidance from Tangata Whenua.

We will work together at every level of society, celebrating our common humanity, acknowledging the different climate-changed world we are entering, respecting the needs of all people, present and future and of other living beings.